Jatropha oil for diesel engine application : estimation of its potential in Suphanburi Province using GIS & RS | |
| Author | Vijittra Chalatlon |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.ET-08-11 |
| Subject(s) | Biomass energy--Geographic information systems--Thailand--Suphanburi Jatropha--Geographic information systems--Thailand--Suphanburi |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Energy |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | At present, oil resources are scarce which causes the oil's price to increase continuingly. Moreover, the high consumption of oil also creates CO₂ emissions. This situation is for all countries, especially for a developing oil importing country like Thailand where oil production is not related to the oil consumption of the country. The gap between the consumption and production is solved by importing oil from other countries which requires Thailand to use its foreign reserve. Therefore, Thai government also notes the necessity to use renewable energy as an alternative energy. Accordingly, the government has promoted biofuel as an option of oil in the transport sector in order to diversify fuel types and reduce dependency on energy import. Jatropha oil is one type of vegetable oil that can be a fuel for diesel engine. Jatropha is a plant that grows easily in a tropical weather and strong sunshine. Jatropha oil has favorable properties such as high Cetane number, high flash point, low sulfur, and low pour point that can be substituted for diesel oil. However, Jatropha oil has high viscosity. Therefore, this study will focus on the improvement of Jatropha oil and will examine the suitable area for growing Jatropha plants in order to develop the production of Jatropha oil as an alternative fuel for diesel engine. To examine land suitability for Jatropha cultivation case study Suphanburi province, Thailand, The results ofthis study found that there was 29.53 sq.km. or 0.55% of total area of Suphanburi province in 2006 by classifying land use from landsat-5 TM. Then, GIS based spatial multiple criteria decision-making analysis was used to identify suitable land for Jatropha cultivation. The factors used in this study are as follow: 1) land use; 2) soil texture; 3) soil fertility; 4) slope; 5) river; 6) rainfall; 7) water shed; 8) irrigation; 9) temperature; and 10) altitude. The weighting and rating score were constructed from 10 questionnaires by experts. Then, Analytical Hierarchical Processing CAHP) was used to weight multi-factor priority model for land suitability for Jatropha cultivation. The results were obtained that the highest area was marginally suitable with 3,569.02 sq.km. or 67% of total area of Suphanburi province. There were 1,577.70 sq.km. and 211.29 sq.km. for highly suitable and moderately suitability respectively Moreover, this study tried to reduce Jatropha oil's viscosity by blending with diesel in various proportions (5%, 10%, 20%, 50%, and 80% of Jatropha oil by volume) and increasing temperature at 40°C, 60°C, 80°C, and 100°C. The results found that viscosity of 5-10% of Jatropha blends can be acceptable in order to the ASTM standard. For using Jatropha oil (pure), the fuel should be heat more than 100°C before directly used in engine. Moreover, diesel, Jatropha oil, and Jatropha oil blends were operated on three cylinders, four stoke, direct injection compression ignition engine. The results demonstrated that 5-10% of Jatropha oil blends gave the similar engine performance with diesel for brake thermal efficiency, brake specific fuel consumption, and system efficiency and emissions for exhaust gas temperature, CO2, and CO. Correspondingly, the properties and engine performance and emissions results obtained shows that blending with 5-10% of Jatropha oil can be used directly in diesel engine by without any modification or preheating. |
| Year | 2008 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Energy Technology (ET) |
| Chairperson(s) | Kumar, Sivanappan;Dutta, Animesh; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Jayasuriya, Hemanatha P.W.;Honda, Kiyoshi; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | RTG Fellowship; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Sc.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2008 |